Heavy rains topple trees on Lake Lanier

Weeks of heavy rains have created a new hazard for those on Lake Lanier.

Trees along the shoreline are starting to fall now that their roots are under water.

"We've seen trees go down over the years, but nothing as big as this," homeowner Alex Mallis said, showing Channel 2's Tom Regan the latest tree that went down in his yard.

Mallis says he heard wind gusting Monday night, and then a much louder sound.

“You could hear it -- just a bam! It was loud,” Mallis said.

The tree, normally on land, had been partially underwater for weeks. With a saturated root system, it didn’t take much to topple it over, just missing the dock next to it.

“With the high winds coming, be it tomorrow or next week, you're going to have a lot more falling down,” said David Bahn with Marine Specialties.

Bahn said if this rainy season is anything like last year, he expects to see 50 trees toppled by water-soaked roots and soil, and it's not just the trees that go down.

“We had some last year, we had probably eight docks destroyed, and I'm talking about it falling down in the middle of the dock, dock caving in, boats falling down,” Bahn said.

Bahn said one of his crews will soon arrive with a large barge to begin the tough job of cutting up and hauling off the tree.

“We are going to come in with big machinery, start taking out the branches, putting them in and then use our grappling hooks to pick up the tree, cut it up and put it in the barge," Bahn said.

Mallis said he feels like he dodged a bullet.

“I'm glad it didn’t hit the dock; I'm glad it went that way and didn't hit the house,” Mallis said.

Bahn said with so many trees expected to fall, it might be a good idea for lakefront residents to check their insurance coverage.